The Northern Advocate FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1913. NORTHERN LANDS.

Northern Advocate, 3 October 1913, Page 4

The Northern Advocate FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1913. NORTHERN LANDS.

; » the northern part of New Zealand enjoys many advantages over other parts of the Dominion it is also true that it suffers from certain very definite disadvantages, both natural and acquired. Among the most obvious are, of course, those having relation to transport and communication. The former of these are being slowly overcome, and there is every reason to believe that, a more energetic railway construe- i tion will shortly relieve us from i complaint on that score. «\So far as roads are concerned our plight is certainly deplorable, and in a great measure due to local inactivity respecting this almost vital necessity, j Without great improvement in our roading - development must clearly be hampered, and it only requires of what has been effected elsewhere by t roading to realise what would be ■ possible here in the north. In addition to the roading problem and questions relating to railways the people of the north have another matter requiring their most earnest consideration —-this is with respect to the profitable use and treatment of the inferior lands. Our problems on this score are not quite the same, though they are akin, to tfcose confronted by the settlers in the Waikato. Nevertheless what has been done there can be repeated here if the business is as intelligently handled. On land probably more difficult of treatment than the lower grade lands of the north, results that are really wonderful have been achieved. With the general outline of these our readers are no doubt familiar —of land purchased by the Government not many years , ago at five shillings an acre now yielding abundant crops of lucerne and giving excellent returns from - oats and root crops. This has naturally not been accomplished by looking at the ground or merely tickling it with a a hoe. Carefully thoughtout systems of tillage and manuring have been employed. The essential thing, however, is that the results

are there, and are being repeated by individual settlers over a considerable area of country previously despised. The lesson to be learned from all this by residents of the north is contained in the record of progressive development south of the Waitemata. \What we now require is a systematised effort to conquer by scientific methods the disadvantages created by the existence of lands now yielding little, if anything, of value. The Chamber of Commerce recently moved itself in the direction of interesting the Department of Agriculture in the lower grade lands of the north, and in all probability will be able to soon congratulate itself on seeing at least a preliminary indication of the Department's activity extending to our territory. This, however, should be taken merely as an encouragement to organised co-operative effort. A mere lecture to farmers though of

course very good in its way is not sufficient. *»A year or two ago an experiment farm seemed about to be inaugurated in the district, but for reasons never made altogether clear the idea appears to have been dropped. This is something more than a mistake.